Elections 2016:
NDI sends international mission to observe elections in Georgia

The main United States (US) branch of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) is sending a high level  international mission to observe the October 8 Parliamentary Elections in Georgia.

NDI is a non-profit organisation that supports democratic institutions and practices worldwide, and has satellite offices all over the world including Georgia.

Today NDI said its delegation, composed of politicians, civil sector leaders, election experts and regional specialists, will arrive in Georgia in the next few days. 

The delegation included:

• Ted Kaufman – former US senator from Delaware 
• Sam Gejdenson – NDI Board Member and a former US  representative from Connecticut
• Janusz Onyskiewicz – Poland’s Ex-Minister of Defence and former Vice President of the European Parliament
• Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck – A Belgian State Minister and former member of the European Parliament
• Laura Jewett – NDIs Regional Director for Eurasia 
• Laura Thornton – Senior Director of NDI’s Tbilisi office. 

The delegation will use the work of an NDI pre-election assessment mission that visited Georgia in June, as well as the findings of long-term experts who have been in Georgia and monitoring the pre-election environment since August, said NDI Georgia. 

Laura Thornton ( In the middle), Senior Director of NDI’s Tbilisi office. Photo by NDI Georgia press office. 

The delegation’s purpose is to demonstrate the international community’s continuing support for democratic processes in Georgia. NDI has been working in the country since 1994 to support the development of parliament, political parties and civil society,” NDI Georgia added. 

When in capital Tbilisi, the US NDI delegation will meet with different political players, Government and election officials as well as representatives of civil society, media and the international community. 

After holding briefings in Tbilisi, NDI’s observer teams will deploy to locations around the country where they will meet local electoral authorities, political party representatives and domestic election monitors to assess the electoral environment.

 On Election Day, Saturday October 8, the NDI observers will visit monitor polling stations when voting opens at 8am, throughout the day and when voting closes at 7pm. The NDI observers will also monitor the vote counting processes in their assigned regions. 

The observer teams will then return to Tbilisi to prepare a preliminary statement about their election observations, which will be released at a press conference the following day on October 9.